Holiday season approaches: Southern Italian cooking with The Paul Mitchell School

As the Holiday Season approaches, like many, I always enjoy a good cooking show. And what’s a cooking show without a few celebrity guests? So a few weeks ago, I recruited Giuseppe and Giulio Veglio from the Paul Mitchell School in downtown Schenectady.

Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara and his daughter Marianna help to prepare ingredients for some holiday cooking with Giuseppe and Giulio Veglio from The Paul Mitchell School in downtown Schenectady!

Giulio moved from southern Italy to Schenectady with his family when he was just five years old. Like myself, he grew up in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood and his father worked at the General Electric Company, just as my father did. Giulio not only owns the Paul Mitchell School in Schenectady, but many others across the country, including three in Florida, three in Tennessee, one in Denver and Louisville. His brother, Dr. Giuseppe Veglio, left his job as a forensic pathologist at Ellis Hospital to serve as dean of the Schenectady school. I convinced them both to take a break from teaching students about styling, coloring hair, skin treatments and manicures to teach us something about southern Italian cooking, just in time for the holidays.

We met up in the kitchen at the Zen Asian Fusion Lounge, just a few doors down from their school in downtown Schenectady. Inside, I found myself surrounded by pasta, homemade sauce, and a host of other ingredients. So, what was on the menu? Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, a traditional southern Italian dish that’s the perfect combination of the simplicity and traditional flavors unique to the Italian peninsula. The dish dates back to the mid-twentieth century and is known for a spicy, pungent aroma produced by its ingredients. People cook it today because it has a remarkable flavor, is easy, and is made of ingredients easily kept on hand including extra-virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, peeled tomatoes in puree, basil, chili peppers, Kalamata olives, anchovy fillets, capers, oregano, red pepper, fresh Italian parsley, and of course the spaghetti and grated cheese. Amongst our celebrity cooks for this southern Italian dish, my daughter Marianna, who assisted with preparing some of the ingredients, also joined us.

Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara gives the Puttanesca sauce a taste just before Giuseppe and Giulio Veglio add the finishing touches and prepare to serve the dish.

We begin by heating the oil in large pot over medium heat. Garlic is added and sautéed before adding the tomatoes with puree. Chopped chili peppers, olives, capers, diced tomatoes, crushed red pepper and oregano are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. The sauce is then simmered until thickened. In the meantime, the spaghetti is cooked al dente. We drain the pasta, but save a cupful of the cooking water. Basil is added to the sauce along with a splash of that reserved cooking water. At this point we have a taste and season to our liking. The sauce is now poured over the pasta and tossed over low heat. The dish is served with good shaving of fresh cheese and the final touch is a topping of parsley. Ready to serve!

The recipe for the sauce varies according to personal preference. It can also be a little salty from the capers, olives, and anchovies, but is very fragrant from the garlic. In our recipe we left out the anchovies like the Neapolitan version. In other versions chili peppers are sometimes left out. Feel free to fire up the sauce if you want to, but know that even though the first taste might not seem that hot, it builds as you eat. Traditionally, the sauce is served with spaghetti, although it also goes well with penne, bucatini, linguine and vermicelli.

Giuseppe mastered this classic dish during his time in Italy. It’s still one of his favorite recipes. For the occasion, a film crew from Proctor’s Open Stage Media in Schenectady filmed on location so we could share it with viewers of my television program, “Santabarbara NOW”. I hope that our passion for Italy and its culinary bounty is both entertaining and informative for readers and viewers.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca: A traditional Italian dish that’s not only perfect for the holiday season, but also easy to make. Thank you to celebrity cooks Giuseppe and Giulio Veglio from The Paul Mitchell School in downtown Schenectady!

Anyone who has ever had friends stop over unexpectedly understands the feeling of having to throw a dish together with little time to spare. Hopefully, this special holiday edition of “Santabarbara NOW” highlights a dish that will let you entertain while you prepare a quick, simple meal that will add a little bit of spice and a lot of flavor to any occasion.

To watch our cooking show online visit Proctor’s Open Stage Media at http://openstagemedia.com/video-demand in the and look for “Santabarbara Now Puttanesca” in the Video on Demand Section or visit http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T01060&video=176055 for a direct link to the show.

You can also tune in to Time Warner Cable Channel 16 or 18 (Channel 36 on FiOS) in the Capital Region during the holiday season. Happy holiday cooking!